Forget TSA pat-downs: Drive a flying car

As the “Maverick” traveled from Florida to Wisconsin, people stopped its driver – or pilot, as the case may be – to ask about the odd vehicle, something they could hardly believe, something right out of the movie “Back to the Future 2”: for the Maverick … is a flying car.
And when many of the awed spectators talked with the Maverick’s driver and creator, they were doubly surprised to learn he is none other than Steve Saint, son of Nate Saint, the now-famous missionary who was killed in 1956 attempting to reach the remote Waodani tribe of Ecuador.
Inspired by his father’s sacrifice and his own unique upbringing, Steve Saint envisioned the need for vehicles that could go where traditional cars and airplanes could not, to serve the needs of people in some of the earth’s most remote locations.
“This machine was designed to go places no other single vehicle has ever gone,” Steve Saint writes in an article detailing the Maverick’s first flight, “drive highway speeds on highways, transform automatically into an ATV when the roads are primitive and rough, float when the bridge is out or the river has flooded its banks and inundated the roads – and fly when it is impractical to drive or float. … One small leap for man, a giant step for mankind living beyond roads.”
Steve Saint says the Maverick – which can do 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds on the ground, is certified by the Federal Aviation Association for flights up to 10,000 feet in altitude and can even be equipped with pontoons to traverse water – can be used for border patrol, search-and-rescue operations or even flying to dodge the traffic on your way “to Wal-Mart.”
But the primary purpose, he says, “is in places where there are no doctors, there are no nurses, there’s no hospital.” His eventual plan is to sell the Maverick in the commercial market in order to, in turn, make it affordable for humanitarian and missions operations.
Saint drove the Maverick from Dunnellon, Fla., to Oshkosh, Wis. – a trip of roughly 1,400 miles – to demonstrate the practical use of the car not just in the air, but also on the highway.